A Heron, Coot and Butterflies around the Lake

As I walked around the village lido I spotted a heron. The heron never moved a muscle as I did a complete circle of the lake.

On the coot's nest I could see one perhaps two chicks. I've not seen them on the water yet.

Someone had told me there were lots of meadow brown butterflies on the buddleia bush at the lido. I did find a lot but wasn't sure if they were meadow browns or gatekeepers. Reading up about them, the meadow brown has one white spot in the centre of the black spot on the upper wing and the gatekeeper has two. Also, when their wings are folded the gatekeeper has a row of small white dots on its underwing, whereas the meadow brown has small dark dots. So, I presume this is a gatekeeper. They look very similar though.

There were also a few red admirals and green veined whites.

The lido has a big batch of white water lilies that covers a large area of the lake.

I didn’t know the name of this plant but after a bit of research I found out it is a gaultheria shallon. I've never heard of it but I see it a lot in the woods.

Yesterday, there were no raspberries on the bush. Today, it's covered! I might pop back and pick a few to put in a yoghurt.